California broadband adoption rate flat for 5 years

8 July 2017 by Steve Blum
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The in-home broadband subscription rate in California is the same now as it was five years ago, and the cost of service is the biggest barrier to adoption. That’s the top line result from an annual survey commissioned by the California Emerging Technology Fund. This year, the research was carried out by U.C. Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies. It found that in 2017, 69% of Californian households are connected to the Internet via a “computing device”, which is the same rate as in 2013.

Another 18% of Californian households get Internet access “through a smart phone only”. That figure has gone up over the five years: in 2013, it was 6%.

Age, income and ethnicity matter. Homes surveyed where the “householder” is younger than 30 years old are well above the 69% average, with 78% reporting broadband access. On the other hand, Internet connectivity drops off sharply past age 65 – 60% for everyone 65 and older, and just 49% at 75 and older.

White households have a broadband take rate of 83%, which compares to Asian American and African American households at 64% and 63% respectively, and to Latino households, which have an overall adoption rate of 54% and just a 32% rate among Spanish speakers. Latinos are also far more likely to be limited to smart phone access only.

There’s a clear household income trend too – 48% of household where income levels are less than $20,000 a year have in-home broadband access, compared to 90% of households with income at $100,000 or more. Reliance on smart phones is likewise linked to income, with 27% of households with income of less than $20,000 relying solely on mobile service. That figure drops to 9% in homes where income is at $100,000 or more.

Price is the major reason people do not have broadband service in their homes. Of the Californians who don’t have connectivity, 69% cite cost as a factor and 34% say it’s the main reason. No other factor comes close. Only 12% say it’s because of technical difficulties or a lack of knowledge. That’s in line with other studies that point to service and equipment costs as the primary barrier to broadband adoption.